United States Ninth Circuit

District court's denial of petition is affirmed, however, the case is remanded for an evidentiary hearing on petitioner's claim of judicial bias, where: 1) five of the claims for ineffective assistance of counsel are procedurally barred; 2) counsel's performance was not deficient when, at the time of trial, it was not required to show a causal nexus between mitigating evidence and the crime, counsel conducted a thorough penalty phase investigation, and presented voluminous mitigating evidence; 3) petitioner was not prejudiced by counsel not challenging the trial court's failure to weigh the mitigating evidence cumulatively; but, 4) the state court came to an unreasonable determination of the facts in denying petitioner's judicial bias claim, and the district court abused its discretion in denying this claim without an evidentiary hearing. (Replacement Opinion)

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/18/2013
• Published 01/18/2013

Judges

• NELSON

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel